Explore the Archives
A Journal of the Plague Year Arizona Collection Australia Boston Bronx Community College New York Brooklyn College New York Canada Las Americas Lockdown Staten Island New Orleans Oral Histories Philippines Sacramento Community Based Organizations Southwest Stories Teaching the Pandemic The City College of New York

Collected Item: “Meme: Hotspot Lockdown in Brunswick West, Melbourne”

Give your story a title.

Meme: Hotspot Lockdown in Brunswick West, Melbourne

What sort of object is this: text story, photograph, video, audio interview, screenshot, drawing, meme, etc.?

meme, posted in a Facebook Messenger group chat but source unknown

Tell us a story; share your experience. Describe what the object or story you've uploaded says about the pandemic, and/or why what you've submitted is important to you.

This meme was posted in my Melbourne friends' Facebook Messenger group chat in the wake of Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews' announcement that certain 'hotspot' suburbs in Melbourne would return to Stage 3 lockdown at the end of June 2020. From the point of view of people outside of hotspot suburbs, it makes light of other neighbouring suburbs turning a blind eye to people who have to go back to lockdown, creating temporary walls between spaces, people and families. Unfortunately, because I lived in Brunswick West, I was one of the unlucky few in my friendship group who had to go back into lockdown. I watched on social media as all my other friends caught up with each other and took advantage of being able to travel more and go out to bars and cafes. As unlucky as I felt, memes like this one always functioned as a way to laugh at bad situations. My friends and I usually coped with lockdown through memes and jokes, characteristic of gen Z humour.
HIST30060.

Use one-word hashtags (separated by commas) to describe your story. For example: Where did it originate? How does this object make you feel? How does this object relate to the pandemic?

meme, Melbourne, Brunswick West, lockdown, hotspot

Who originally created this object? (If you created this object, such as photo, then put "self" here.)

unknown creator

Give this story a date.

2020-06-30
Click here to view the corresponding item.